stalemate sufficient for lazio published: friday 4 october 2002, 0.01cet xanthi fc 0-0 s.s. lazio (agg: 0-4) enrico chiesa's return the silver lining for lazio in greece.
s.s. lazio were held to a scoreless draw by xanthi fc but still advanced 4-0 on aggregate in their uefa cup first-round tie.
second yellow card the serie a side had defender francesco colonnese sent off after 37 minutes for a second bookable offence but still never looked like conceding against their greek hosts.
chiesa returns lazio welcomed enrico chiesa back into their starting lineup after a year's absence through injury but even he was unable to break the deadlock.
manfredini menace missing nine first-team regulars through injury and absence, lazio were largely happy to sit back and defend, but chiesa was involved after just nine minutes, combining with simone inzaghi to set up christian manfredini, whose effort grazed the post and skimmed wide.
marchegiani save xanthi's first effort of note came after 14 minutes when stavros lampriakos's strike was turned behind by luca marchegiani in the lazio goal.
colonnese off the home side were given hope when colonnese was sent off after two challenges in the space of three minutes, but they struggled to make their numerical superiority tell. indeed, lazio came closest to scoring at the start of the second half, when manfredini sent a shot crashing against the crossbar.
late chance the nearest the home side got to grabbing a goal was when jürgen leitner's shot flew just over the crossbar in added time at the end of the second half, and lazio were left to celebrate a place in the second round as well as the return of one of their finest players to european action.
